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YouBongo – Visualizing Open Data

After intensive work we now publish a new module for YouBongo to visualize the open data. This is a continuation of our commitment to making open data useful for the users. We focus on creating opportunities for collaboration and comment on open data. The first providers of open data is Swedish Transport Administration service for traffic information. The module for visualization is a beta version and we expect a period of fine tuning before we got all the details in place.

You Bongo - Traffic Info
You Bongo – Traffic Info

The module for the visualization of open data, shows the user’s current location and how far it is to different traffic situations and incidents. This makes it easy for the user to focus on what is near or on the literary he or she intendant to make.

We will continue to look for interesting provider of data that we can adapt and visualized in an attractive way for the user. We want to thank the Swedish Transport Administration for answer our questions during the testing phase.

Partially translated by Google Translate

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YouBongo – Service for social observations

We are excited to finally introduce a cloud service for observations. YouBongo is a service to store, share and collaborate on observations we make on a daily basis, as a hobby or to inform others. As a user, you can contribute with information to others’ observations that you think are important, to rank them higher within the relevant geographical area. YouBongo is integrated with social media (Twitter, Facebook and Google+) to raise awareness for observations in other forums. The service does not have a like button or similar, it requires a bit more from the user to comment and contribute with valuable information to the observations.

You Bongo - Crowdsourcing
You Bongo – Crowdsourcing

YouBongo has a geographic search engine that enables precise searches within a specific geographic area. The user searches within a certain radius, and can filter on categories that he / she thinks is interesting. You Bongo will soon connect to public databases (i.e. open data) with government and community information to increase the usability of the service. YouBongo is a developable platform that will be expanded with functionality that we think is interesting from a social development and technological perspective. Please contact us if you have any suggestions on interesting areas for further development (info@clearbyte.org). Some date is recorded over central Gothenburg in Sweden if you want to try to search for observations.

You Bongo - Social Media
You Bongo – Social Media

Partially translated by Google Translate

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Sociala media version 2.0

Social media is the most useful tool to disseminate information quickly and can get a virile spread within a few minutes. But much of the information disseminated on social media are usually short-lived and rarely rich in content (although it can refer to the links with text, images, videos, etc..) But we are so much wiser that information spreads faster and faster without we consider its origin and context in which it is created.

View as tight turns up to any politician or famous person who makes an unsubstantiated statement. As he or she may later deny or undo publicly. Or that rumor carousel goes so fast that it becomes a reality (internet kills several celebrities) before any time to rebut or respond when rumors spread virile.

Next generation of social media

The next generation of social media (we can call it 2.0 temporarily) need to create more functionality than simply offer new channels for disseminating information quickly. It must offer opportunities to collaborate on information (crowd sourcing) to create a richer content and put it in context. For information should be comprehensive and provide added value, it takes more mental power than just pressing a like button or pass it in the new forums and channels.

Social Media 2.0 also needs to be more integrated with other networked applications to create a better experience for the end user. To use information from a forum as an input to another. Without the user must link manually references to sources. For example, it may be to discuss a new song from their favorite band and automatically linked band schedule in the geographic area where the user is located. For this to happen, information must be tagged with meta data to be moved between systems. A computer does not know if the words “Artic Mokeys” refers to a musical group, or if you find monkeys on the Antarctic. Not until we have created true artificial intelligence in the truest sense. Which means that the user must provide some references to the information he nor she creates.

The question then is whether the creator of information to or have the time to add references or tags to what is being discussed. This may depend on which forum the information is addressed to and if it is used for private or professional purposes. What we already know is that social media has already found its way into our public authorities and parliament.

This article is designed to highlight the issue of how to use information from social media today. Are there any areas where it fits less well or should we implement it at all levels of our society?

Partially translated by Google Translate